Rio de Janeiro, Aug 13 : In yet another case of agonizing near-miss, Indian shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan was knocked out of the Rio Olympics after suffering a heart-breaking defeat in the shoot-off for the men's skeet semifinals here on Saturday.
The 40-year-old, hailing from Khurja in Uttar Pradesh, finished fifth after scoring 121 points at the end of the stipulated five rounds before being involved in the shoot-off, featuring four others with the same score in the second day of qualifying at the Olympic Shooting Centre.
Following the shoot-off, Mairaj finished in ninth position as top six shooters progressed through to the semifinals.
On the first day of qualifying, he had accumulated a total score of 72 (24, 25, 23) from three sets. Abdullah Alrashidi, a Kuwaiti playing under the International Olympic Committee flag, took the top spot in the qualifying ahead of Sweden's Marcus Svensson.
Earlier in the day, Gurpreet Singh also came really close to qualifying, finishing just outside the top six to miss out on a spot in the final of the 25m rapid fire pistol event.
India, who have sent their largest-ever contingent of 119 athletes in Rio Olympics, are yet to open their medal account in the ongoing Summer Games.
Source: ANI
